ENTC 3030 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS

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ENTC 3030TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS

• PROPOSAL

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Proposals vs. Reports

• Proposal
• At the beginning of a project
• Looks forward
• Identifies a problem
• Describes a plan for solving the problem
• Hypothetical (we will)

• Report
• At the end of a project
• Looks backwards
• Identifies a solution
• Describes how the problem was solved
• Concrete (we did)

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• For many engineers and scientists, proposals are
  the most important form of writing.
• Most academic researchand a substantial amount
  of industrial researchis funded through a review
  procedure in which written proposals are
  evaluated by panels of researchers from the same
  field.
• For working scientists and engineer proposal
  writing can make the difference between continued
  research and interruption in a long-term project.

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• Proposals set projects in motion and are often
  part of a cycle of documents that marks the
  progress of research.
• They may be preceded by a pre-proposal called the
  white papers, an information package describing
  new concepts or products.

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• In many technical industries, white papers are
  posted on a company Web site or mailed to
  prospective clients, in hope of receiving a
  request to provide the items described.

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• The work specified in a proposal may be tracked
  in notebooks and progress reports.
• Memoranda, reference papers, meeting minutes, and
  letters then keep a project in motion.

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Proposals as Sales and Planning Documents

• Proposals are written in a variety of informal
  and formal modes, from short memoranda to
  multivolume industrial bids.
• An in-house proposal, written as a brief and
  informal memorandum, may circulate only within a
  writers organization.
• An external proposal may circulate widely and be
  refereed by management and budget experts as well
  as by knowledgeable technical specialists.

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• Business plans, written to acquire funding for a
  technical project, are a specialized form of
  proposal, typically submitted to an audience that
  includes bank loan officers and investors as well
  as company management.

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• Depending on the complexity and extent of a
  research project, a proposal may be written by
  one or by many researchers.
• For large industrial proposals, the production
  group may include, in addition to engineers and
  scientists, technical managers, editors, text
  processors, artists, and photographers.

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• Most proposals have important elements In common.
  
• They identify a problem
• explain what work will be done to solve the
  problem
• name the researchers who will do the work
• argue for their qualifications
• specify a time frame, location, materials, and
  equipment and
• calculate a cost.

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• Most proposals are submitted to reviewers who are
  knowledgeable, critical, and concerned,
  interested in selecting strong proposals and
  eliminating problematic ones.
• Many proposals have multiple reviewers.
• The more you are asking forthe higher the
  stakes the more readers you are likely to have,
  and the more knowledgeable and critical they will
  be.

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Proposals as Persuasion

• A major difference between proposals and other
  forms of scientific and technical literature is
  that proposal documents are usually entered into
  competitions.
• The goal of every proposal writer is to win the
  approval and the money to go ahead with a
  project.

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• Because success in preparing proposals is a major
  factor in advancing or even maintaining academic
  careers, as well as staying in business, writers
  must overcome any reluctance to draft persuasive
  documents.
• Proposals are mixed bags of elements
• technical descriptions,
• time lines,
• curricula vitae,
• budget analyses,
• fill-in-the-blank data sheets.

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• Think of ways to make every element in a proposal
  an argument for
• the value of your idea,
• the elegance and good sense of your work plan,
  the strength of your preparation,
• the appropriateness of your facilities, and
• the economy of your budget.

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• The successful proposal requires a narrative
  shaped to exhibit the strengths of your plan.
• A well-developed proposal shows that the
  investigator has grasped a problem well enough to
  justify second party sponsorship of the
  enterprise.
• The goal is to get a sponsor to spend money.

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• The usual strategy of academic proposal writers
  is to understate claims, trying to sound somewhat
  reticent and modest, cautious and competent.
• In contrast, the usual strategy of industrial
  proposal writers and authors of business plans is
  to aggrandize.

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Proposals as Projections

• A proposal is a planning document that defines
  work commitments and establishes the criteria by
  which the success of a project will be
  determined.
• You write a proposal before you know the results.
  
• But the illusion that a proposal must foster in
  its reviewers is that it represents work for
  which there is already a plan.

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• Estimates of a work program, its cost, and its
  schedule must be convincing.
• A good proposal must describe a project in enough
  detail to convince reviewers that they are
  learning what will happen at every stage of the
  project.

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• Of course, a proposal may include a technical
  design or a management plan that the bidder does
  not want disclosed.
• In that case, a Restriction on Disclosure notice,
  stating that information may not be disclosed for
  any purpose other than to evaluate the proposal,
  can be printed on the title page, and every sheet
  of data that is also so restricted can be marked
  
• Use or disclosure of proposal data is subject to
  the restriction on the title page of this
  proposal.

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• Strategic Planning for Funding Success

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Solicited or Unsolicited?

• Proposals are said to be solicited when a sponsor
  formally announces that funding is available to
  conduct research in a specific area.
• Such an announcement may be called a
• Request for Proposal (RFP),
• Request for Applications (RFA), or
• Notice of Program Interest (NPI).

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• Proposals are considered to be unsolicited when
  they are submitted to an agency that has not
  circulated a formal request for research.
• You may also be confronted with a hybrid form
• The sponsor provides explicit proposal
  preparation guidelines, but research topics are
  not specified.

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• Solicited proposals must address a problem in an
  area defined by the sponsor.
• They will be judged by the writers ability to
  meet a specified need, to economize, and to
  deliver a quality product.
• These proposals may be measured against their
  competition on the basis of originality and
  importance within a discipline.

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• Completely unsolicited proposals present the most
  severe writing challenge.
• Here you have the twin tasks of persuading
  potential sponsors that a problem or a need
  exists and persuading them that yours is the
  right group to solve the problem or meet the
  need.

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Enter the Right Competitions

• Because proposal writing is absorbing and often
  exhausting, you need to enter the right
  competitions.
• A proposal has the highest chance of success when
  it is well matched to an assessment of the
  sponsors needs.
• The review process generally gives the largest
  number of points to projects that are responsive
  to the agencys request.

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Think in Two Time Frames

• In the challenging work of proposal preparation,
  you need to think in two time frames
• the time you need to prepare the proposal
  document and
• the time you need to complete the proposed
  research.

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• For the first time frame, some competitions have
  no fixed deadlines, and some do.
• If you know that you cannot get a strong
  proposal in on time, it may be best not to enter
  a competition.

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• For the second time frame, consider whether the
  research you are proposing is well timed for the
  announced term of the grant.
• Funding agencies like results.
• They need powerful evidence that the work you
  propose both requires 36 months of effort and can
  he completed in 36 months.

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• Read RFPs carefully, looking for information
  about preferred time frames.
• Improve your chances of success by proposing
  projects that fit the agencys guidelines about
  time.
• Consider, too, that many agencies acknowledge
  that research plans have natural phases or
  breakpoints, and they allow for proposing
  specific phases of projects.

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• Progress reports are normally expected at the end
  of such phases, and follow-up funding for
  additional phases may be available.

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Take Advantage of Help

• Overcome any reluctance to take full advantage of
  assistance.
• Many agencies encourage you to contact program
  personnel before preparing your proposal.
• A meeting will help potential bidders determine
  if preparation of a formal submission is
  approprlate.

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• Even if the agency discourages you from
  proceeding, the feedback you receive may help you
  develop subsequent proposals.

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• Talk to colleagues who have dealt with the agency
  or sponsor in the past.
• Review funded proposals.
• Successful proposals require negotiation
• you have an idea
• you call an agency to discuss your idea
• you revise your idea.

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• With every move you narrow the gap between what
  the agency wants and what you have to offer.

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• If you are entering a new research area, conduct
  a literature search on the topic to get
• a better grasp of any published findings,
• relevant methodologies, and
• possible collaborators or competitors.
• Be sure to consider any political significance of
  your project.

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• Use EvaIuation Criteria as Planning Tools
• When a sponsor provides criteria for evaluation
  of proposals, study them carefully at the
  planning, drafting, and editing stages.

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• To deal effectively with reviewers, you must
  continually consider their constraints and
  requirements.
• If criteria for awards are not published in the
  RFP, it is sometimes possible to get more
  information by telephoning the funding
  organization.

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Learn about the Review Process

• Proposal writers have an important factor in
  their favor
• agencies and other sponsors need good project
  proposals.

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• When research funding is available, referee teams
  hope to award their support to someone.
• Referees want, most of all, to be vindicated in
  their choices.
• They have a stake in awarding funds to promising
  projects.
• They need more than good concepts they need
  evidence that you can meet claims and deadlines.

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• Proposal funding is, however, not entirely
  rational.
• Critics of peer reviewing argue that reviewers
  are biased in favor of proposers at the more
  prestigious universities.

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Get Approvals in Advance

• Proposals that commit the resources of an
  institution must be approved by an appropriate
  administrator before they can be submitted.
• Many universities have administrative units whose
  responsibility is the administration of contracts
  and grants.
• These offices can provide useful guidance.

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• External approvals may be needed as well.
• In industrial settings, approvals are equally
  important.

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Systematic Proposal Preparation

• The proposal is a written product that sets forth
  the design of a technical product.
• The tasks of writing the proposal and those of
  doing the work are often analogous.
• Both require a systematic approach.
• Both require knowledge of logical work units.
• Both require careful estimation of completion
  time.
• Both require allocation of responsibility.

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• You can expect, therefore, that the same project
  management tools used to monitor the progress of
  writing the proposal are used later to monitor
  the work defined in the proposal.

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• The following preparation model applies to many
  kinds of proposals.

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• Study the Request for Proposal

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• The most important criteria for proposal writing
  are the explicit instructions in the RFP.
• Follow proposal preparation instructions exactly.
  You must provide what the RFP asks for.
• Read the RFP more than onceand if your proposal
  will involve other researchers or writers, be
  sure that all members of the group read the
  entire RFP, not just their own sections.

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• The instructions for proposal preparation may
  include a number of forms to fill out and submit
  with your document
• cover sheets,
• budget sheets,
• forms for biographical sketches,
• checklists,
• mailing labels.

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• Be sure to use each applicable form, following
  preparation instructions exactly.
• Whatever the proposal, it will usually have a
  prefatory section with a
• letter of transmittal,
• cover page,
• table of contents,
• list of figures and tables, and
• summary.

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• A main section with technical, management, and
  cost details and some appended items.

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• In preparing your document, take care to comply
  with requirements and also to make your
  compliance visible with sections, titles, and
  headings that match instructions in the RFP.

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• If no instructions for proposal preparation are
  provided, you may select elements with more
  freedom than writers who must comply strictly
  with specified requirements.
• The most sensible plan, however, is to prepare
  proposals in conventional ways, answering the
  standard questions
• The proposal format displayed on the following
  page is widely used, covering technical,
  management, and cost areas.

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Proposal Format

• Front Matter
• Letter of Transmittal
• Cover Page
• Project Summary
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures Tables
• Compliance Matrix

• Body of Proposal
• Technical Section
• Management Section
• Budget
• Appendixes
• References
• Curriculum Vitae
• Supporting Details

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Turn Requirements into Outline and Compliance
Matrix

• Use the instructions in the RFP to draft an
  outline for each section of the proposal,
  following the exact order and numbering system in
  the RFP.
• When a sponsor provides proposal preparation
  instructions, a good practice is to prepare a
  compliance matrix, whether one is requested or
  not, to indicate your adherence to specifications
  and to show evaluators where they can find your
  response to each item required in the RFP.

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Make Plans for Time Management

• Leave time for your proposal efforts.
• Industrial bidders to the U.S. government read
  the government publication Commerce Business
  Daily for notice of upcoming solicitations.
  (http//cbdnet.access.gpo.gov/)
• Academic proposal writers receive mailings from
  potential sponsors.

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• Proposals are usually written under pressure.
• You have technical work as well as proposal
  writing to do.
• Often in a matter of one or two weeks, a project
  concept must be refined, a team assembled, and a
  detailed document prepared.

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• This complex process must be thoughtfully
  sequenced and coordinated.
• It must include steps like
• technical brainstorming,
• proofing,
• printing,
• binding, and
• delivery.

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• When you work out a routine for proposal writing,
  you need to allocate time for each step by first
  identifying the submission deadline and then
  backing up to the present.

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Allocate Team Responsibilities

• Managing a group preparing a proposal can he as
  challenging as managing the research itself.
• In academic settings, the group writing the
  proposal will probably be the same one slated to
  carry out the work.
• Most research universities have offices of
  contracts and grants to give advice at various
  stages.

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• In industrial settings, many more people are part
  of proposal preparation.
• In addition to the research group, proposal
  managers, budget analysts, technical managers,
  artists, and technical writers are often
  involved.

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• One person should agree to be proposal manager.
• Every group member should read the entire RFP.
• Every member should receive an annotated proposal
  outline with specific allocation of
  responsibility.
• Every member should know who is responsible for
  each part of the proposal.
• Annotated calendars, printouts of graphics
  charting project progress, and the compliance
  matrix should be displayed in prominent places.
• The group should establish regular meeting
  schedules, and members should receive explicit
  instructions about preferred format, writing, and
  design strategies.

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Prepare Style and Format Guides

• The most efficient way to achieve consistency in
  proposals is to prepare style and format
  specifications.
• Style guides may be as informal as a single-page
  handout.
• Or they may be lengthy manuals covering numerous
  issues such as
• how to prepare mathematical material
• preferred spellings, abbreviations, and acronyms
  and
• grammar, capitalization, and hyphenation.

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• Consistency in format is at least as important as
  consistency in style, showing proposal evaluators
  that you have prepared the document with care.

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• Your team may find it helpful to distribute
  samples of finished pages, with heading styles
  and sizes highlighted, and samples of completed
  illustrations.
• Simple format instructions such as Use Courier
  font in 10 point, design all figures to fit
  either one-half page or a full page, and design
  all figures to be read vertically may be all you
  need to ensure that the proposal looks carefully
  produced.

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• Format specifications can be stored
  electronically.
• You can create templates of basic pages with
  predefined styles of
• headings,
• type sizes,
• fonts,
• margins,
• spacings,
• indentations, and
• other features.

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Facilitate Electronic Submission

• Many funding agencies now require electronic
  submission of proposals.
• The National Science Foundation paperless
  proposal and award initiative is called FastLane,
  
• An interactive real-time system used to conduct
  NSF business over the Internet lthttps//www.fastla
  ne.nsf.gov/fastlane. htmgt.
• Principal Investigators (PIs) at registered
  FastLane institutions prepare their proposals
  on-line, and authorized co-PIs can access and
  modify the proposal.

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• Access is also granted to the proposers
  Sponsored Research Office for comment and
  approvals.
• An electronic proposal is not processed, however,
  until the cover sheet and certification page are
  printed, signed, and mailed to NSF.

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• Proposal Content Front Matter

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Letter of Transmittal

• A letter of transmittal (or a memo, in the case
  of an internal document) should always accompany
  your proposal.
• The letter should identify the solicitation you
  are responding to and give a brief overview of
  proposal contents.

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

• 1st paragraph - Transmits report to recipient,
  states nature of report, mentions authorization
• Body - Synopsis, helpful hints in reading and
  acknowledgments
• Close with goodwill statement

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Cover

• If a preprinted cover sheet is supplied in the
  RFP, be sure to use it.
• If you need to design your own cover, provide the
  project title and name the proposing
  organization, the potential sponsor, the date,
  and program solicitation number.
• A proposal title should be brief, informative,
  and intelligible to a scientifically literate but
  non-specialist reader.
• Take advantage of the visibility and prominence
  of the title to teach reviewers about your idea
  and to sell its advantages.

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Project Summary

• Briefly describe the problem addressed in the
  study, the methods used, and the expected
  results.
• Summaries are typically one to three pages.
• Think of the summary as a freestanding document,
  one that may actually have much wider circulation
  than the rest of the proposal.
• Be sure that readers can profit from the summary
  without reading the main body of the proposal
• Do not refer to tables or figures that appear
  elsewhere define acronyms and avoid
  abbreviations.

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• Some RFPs ask that the summary be written at a
  level appropriate for an audience of educated but
  non-specialist readers.
• In these cases, summaries of successful proposals
  may be used in agency reports and news releases.

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• Some RFPs ask for both summary and abstract.
• Like a summary, an abstract may have a life of
  its own and be read by far more readers than
  those who evaluate the proposal.
• Abstracts are typically briefer than summaries
  (one paragraph of approximately 150 words), and
  they are written for the same specialist readers
  who will read the proposal.

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Table of Contents

• The table of contents serves as an organizational
  map of your proposal, helping evaluators locate
  relevant material.
• In the table of contents, list section headings
  and name the elements contained in appendixes.
• Provide a page number for each element.

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• Many proposal writers provide two tables of
  contents
• a brief version with first-level headings only
  and
• an expanded version with headings at second,
  third, and even fourth or fifth levels.

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List of Figures and Tables

• List all figure and table titles and their page
  numbers.
• The list of figures and tables is highly visible
  and widely used by technical readers.
• As with headings, you can use titles to inform
  and persuade.
• Instead of writing perfunctory titles like
  Filtering system, you can write titles that
  lead evaluators to the conclusion you hope they
  will reach
• Filtering system has been modified to exceed
  requirements.

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Compliance Matrix

• A compliance matrix indicates that you have paid
  careful attention to the sponsors requirements.
• It also tells reviewers where they can find your
  response to each required section.

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• Body of Proposal

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Technical Section

• In the technical section,
• identify the problem and its significance,
• state the objectives of the proposed
  investigation, and
• provide a clear statement of the work to be
  undertaken.

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• Outline your approach to the research, noting
  significant alternatives and your reasons for not
  pursuing them.
• In many cases, you are also expected to review
  earlier work and related studies.

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Management Section

• The management section names the personnel who
  will do the proposed work and the facilities in
  which the work will be done.
• It also contains highly detailed task breakdowns
  and work schedules.

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• Management sections are the place to argue for
  the qualifications of the principal investigators
  and their associates.
• Relevant highlights of curricula vitae can be
  summarized, and
• lists of previous related contracts can be
  provided.

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Budget

• In your budget, provide cost details for salary
  and benefits, and justify each number.
• Include indirect costs (overhead), as well as
  direct costs like materials, equipment, salaries,
  and travel.

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• Appendixes

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References

• List references to previous papers, documents,
  and discussions that have been used in preparing
  the proposal.

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Supporting Details

• When appropriate, include items like
• curricula vitae,
• copies of publications of principal investigators
  in areas related to the proposal topic,
• lists of previous related contracts,
• letters of reference, and
• detailed and oversized figures and tables.

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Business Plans

• Engineers and scientists are increasingly
  interested in raising money to start their own
  technical enterprises.
• In such cases, they need to write a business
  plan,
• a specialized form of proposal pitched to an
  audience of investors or bank loan officers.

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• A business plan has much in common with a
  standard proposal
• It must demonstrate keen understanding of the
  project you wish to undertake as well as of your
  qualifications for accomplishing what you say you
  will.
• Like a formal proposal, a business plan is a
  detailed blueprint for the work you will do and
  the time in which you will do it.
• The major difference is in purpose.

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• While the explicit goal of a research proposal is
  likely to be an enhanced understanding of some
  unsolved problem in science or engineering, the
  explicit goal of a business plan is to raise
  money for an enterprise that will produce a
  financial profit.
• For that reason, business plans require focused
  explanations of how your technical plan enables
  you to do something that others cant (or dont)
  do and that customers will be willing to pay for.
  
• You need to understand the market for your
  concept as well as the competition, and you need
  to provide solid evidence that you and other
  members of your team have the experience and
  credibility to use investors money wisely.

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• Many business plan consultants advise authors to
  treat the executive summary as the most important
  section of the business plan.
• It will be more widely read than any other
  section and should contain a self-sufficient,
  well-reasoned case for providing financing for
  your project.
• In many cases, a face-to-face meeting with
  potential investors is also required.
• You need to be able to speak enthusiastically
  about the critical. elements of your venture and
  to be prepared for highly critical questions.

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Stressing the Strengths of Your Ideas

• Because a proposal is a sales document, you need
  to be able to identify and emphasize the features
  and benefits of your idea.
• Instead of writing a perfunctory caption like
  Project Placement, you can write something that
  may help evaluators to reach positive conclusions
  about the plan described
• Project Placement Takes Maximum Advantage of the
  Expertise of Three Research Groups.

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• Keep in mind that proposals are likely to be
  reviewed by readers with widely different
  interests and levels of technical understanding.
• Because each reviewer will be interested in
  different aspects, plan to repeat key ideas and
  make sections of your proposals as nearly
  freestanding as possible.

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• Give reviewers the impression that you are
  confident of success by using the present tense
  for general descriptions and the future tense for
  actions in the future.
• Write as though the funds and approvals have been
  granted.
• A proposal style dependent on conditional verb
  forms is awkward
• If and when funding were to be granted, we would
  at the time of the second phase of the project
  develop test equipment.
• Compare In Phase 2 we will develop test
  equipment.

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• In some particularly competitive industrial
  settings, strong thematic phrases or sentences
  argue for the merits of their idea
• These phrases are written into every section of
  the proposal, using a matrix as a checklist to
  assure that they have repeated their win themes.

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Preparing an Attractive Document Package

• Even when a proposal is written in accord with
  rigid and challenging page limits, its design
  elements can facilitate navigation through the
  document.
• Tabbed section dividers and informative page
  headers help busy reviewers read your document
  efficiently.
• Judicious selection of type styles and sizes will
  signal what elements are more important than
  others.
• A heavyweight or even laminated proposal cover
  may assure that your document will hold up to
  multiple reviews.
• A logo, proposal title, and organizational name
  on every page will serve as a reminder to
  reviewers of who you are and what you are
  selling.

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• Successful proposals are often exceptionally
  attractive documents, with
• numerous foldouts,
• photographs, and
• other artwork set on pages designed with great
  care.

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• Your Proposal Writing Program

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Resubmitting

• It is highly unlikely that every proposal you
  write will be funded, and it is hard to know
  exactly why one proposal is successful and
  another is not.
• If your project is denied, you can still get some
  benefit from the work you have done by finding
  out why.
• A process called debriefing.

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• Depending on what you learn in your debriefing,
  you may want to resubmit the same proposal or one
  substantially like it in a future competition.
• Possibly it was technically excellent but did not
  fit the agencys research priorities for that
  year.
• If you identify weaknesses in your project
  proposal, consider ways of salvaging the concept.
  
• In some instances, you may focus the proposal on
  another area and apply to another agency.

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Creating Document Databases

• If you regularly write proposals, you will want
  to create computer files of standard information,
  text, and graphics.
• Many proposal sections including curricula
  vitae, drug-free workplace plans, related
  experience, and management historyare likely to
  be required in nearly the same form for any
  project you may bid on.
• Instead of compiling and typing these chunks of
  standard text each time a proposal is created,
  you can record and save them as separate files
  that can be quickly tailored and inserted into
  new documents as needed.

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Staying Informed

• A proposal-writing program requires careful
  planning. You must know the needs of your
  discipline you must have good information on
  funding sources and their requirements. Keep a
  file of agency announcements, RFPs, and NPIs.

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• Keep another file of new project ideas that occur
  to you.
• Articles from the literature may suggest new
  research possibilities for your field.
• Go to conferences,
• Check the Annual Register of Grant Support (R. R.
  Bowker) and
• Keep up with the literature.
• Look for technological developments that make new
  research feasible
• Some researchers sift through patent literature
  for ideas.

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• The Federal Research in Progress Database
  (FEDRIP) provides access to ongoing federally
  funded projects in physical and life sciences as
  well as engineering (lthttp//grc.ntis.gov/fedrip.h
  tmgt).
• Good sources for proposal announcements and
  deadlines are the home pages of agencies like
• The National Science Foundation
  (lthttp//www.nsf.govgt),
• The National Institutes of Health
  (lthttpwww.nih.govgt), and
• The Department of Transportation
  (lthttp//www.dot.govgt)

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• If you depend on the support of sponsored
  research, you must have a long-range funding
  strategy.
• If you are writing proposals in June for next
  winters support, youre in trouble.
• Most research proposals take from four to nine
  months for review, and you may need to be
  thinking two to three years ahead.

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• Keep agency application deadlines prominent on
  your work calendar, and meet each annual
  application deadline with one or more new
  proposals.
• A professional researcher may have five to ten
  proposals circulating at once.
• To write proposals on this scale, you obviously
  need to work out a detailed application routine.

108
Proposals as Part of a Continuum

• Proposals are crucial documents in the production
  of scientific knowledge, providing access to the
  funding and approvals that make research
  possible.
• When proposals are successful, they create more
  communication tasks.
• They lead to writing projects such as
• progress reports,
• final reports,
• conference proceedings, and
• journal articles.

109

• Proposals create occasions for speaking about
  your ideas.
• When you work on a proposal, be prepared to talk
  persuasively about the project, on occasions
  ranging from informal telephone conversations and
  hallway meetings to formal presentations with
  potential sponsors.
• In active professional settings, you should
  always be primed to talk about your research and
  argue for your position.